On 16 September 2018, Eliud Kipchoge ran the marathon faster than anyone before him. At the BMW Berlin Marathon he crossed the line in 2:01:39, a world record. He took one minute and 18 seconds off the previous mark, the largest single cut in more than fifty years.
Alone for 17 kilometres, and still pulling away
The Kenyan had only a handful of pacemakers for company through five kilometres in 14:24. Two of them dropped out shortly after 15 kilometres. The last, Josphat Boit, led him to halfway in 1:01:06 before stepping aside at 25 kilometres.
Running alone with 17 kilometres left, Kipchoge sped up rather than fading. His 30-kilometre split of 1:26:45 is the fastest ever recorded for the distance. He covered the second half in 1:00:33, quicker than the first, and the record looked a certainty by 40 kilometres.
The biggest leap on the record since 1967
The improvement erased Dennis Kimetto's 2:02:57, set in Berlin four years earlier. Not since Derek Clayton cut the mark by two minutes and 23 seconds in 1967 had one man moved it so far in a single race. Amos Kipruto finished a distant second in 2:06:23, with Wilson Kipsang third.
It was Kipchoge's third Berlin win, after 2015 and 2017. Two years earlier he had taken Olympic gold in Rio, and far back in his past lay a world 5000m title won as an 18-year-old.
"I lack the words to describe how I feel," Kipchoge told reporters afterwards. "It was really hard but I was truly prepared to run my own race. I've now run 2:04, 2:03 and now 2:01. Who knows what the future will bring?"
The future, in Berlin, would bring 2:01:09 in 2022 and a record fifth title in 2023. This run marked the point where the marathon started to look different.